


let me photograph you in this light, in case it is the last time

by orphan_account



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Post-Finale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-12 08:06:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5658889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been ten years since Rory graduated from Yale, and Lorelai and Luke found their way back together. Thing is, times change and so do people. The one thing that doesn't change? Family. Returning home after ten years away, Rory is settling back into the town where she grew up, where she learned to love, and she's sharing those experiences with someone very close to her...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was funny how years could pass, yet, nothing had changed. Sure, things had been painted, updated a little bit, but at the end of the day? Completely the same. Taylor's still arguing with Luke outside of the diner, his finger waggling as Luke's face gets redder and redder, and Kirk's up on a ladder across the road trying to adjust the sign on the building of what looks like it's supposed to be his new computer repair shop. It wouldn't be Stars Hollow if Kirk wasn't doing something ridiculous, after all. It's familiar -- it's comfortable, and she couldn't help but smile. It's home.

"Mom." A whine startled her from her thoughts and she glanced down at the hand tugging on her own, a fond smile flitting over her features. Mom. She'll never get tired of hearing that. Not now, not ever. It was weird at first -- for awhile, really, but it's been eight years now, so, she's pretty much used to it. When she'd first found out that she was pregnant she'd been terrified, maybe even a little bit horrified, but from the moment they'd plopped her son down in her arms... man, she'd been hooked. She hadn't thought it was possible to love one singular person more than anything else, even coffee, until she'd set her eyes on him. Little wisps of blonde hair, big blue eyes, and soft skin that she hadn't been able to stop touching. He was incredible, beautiful, and all hers. Every day she treasured and loved him a little more. It would be a problem if he wasn't so cute.

"That's my name, don't wear it out." She joked as she leaned down, crouching before him so they were on the same level. He was going to be tall when he grew up, unlike his parents, but for now she had a good few inches on him. She was going to treasure that for as long as she could. "We're meeting Grandma, remember? At Luke's. Right across the street..." She gestured with her hand, head nodding in the other direction as her son made a face at her. He was starting to enter that phase where it wasn't  _cool_ to be seen with your parents anymore, let alone your grandparents. She'd been warned by her Mom that it was coming, that it'd happen sooner rather than later, but she'd been hoping that it would be more towards the 'later' side of things... but, nope, her son was headed towards an early teenage rebellion. Awesome. 

"I don't want to go to Luke's." He let go of her hand, arms crossing petulantly over his chest as he stuck his lower lip out. It was something she'd learned from him, the pout, but the attitude was all Logan. She'd heard from both Shira and her Grandmother about how  _horrid_ Logan had been when he was growing up, and all of the trouble that he'd managed to get himself into. It really shouldn't have been all that shocking that his son would be capable of the same. She was still holding out hope that the Gilmore in him would wear out, but you just never knew. "We always go to Luke's. Can't we go to Al's? Please?"

Rory heaved a sigh, shaking her head. There weren't a whole lot of options when it came to fine dining in Stars Hollow, not when you had a kid. Ricky -- named Richard, after her late Grandfather -- wasn't the pickiest of eaters, he was a Gilmore after all, but eating somewhere that  _didn't_ have chicken nuggets on the menu just wasn't going to cut it. She'd learned that the hard way when they'd taken him along on one of Logan's business dinners the year before. Ricky had spent the whole night poking food on his plate and sighing every few minutes. They'd ended up ordering pizza when they'd gotten home,  _and_ had made ice-cream sundaes, but she knew that someday, probably in a counselling session, the betrayal was going to come back and haunt them. Rory could only hope that he took it out on Logan and not on her. She could have done without the stuffy dinner, schmoozing with people she didn't really like all that much, and who struggled to remember anything about her aside from the fact that she was Logan's wife. 

_Was._

She swallows thickly before shaking her head. Nope, she's not going to think about that. Not today. Today, they're having dinner with Lorelai. They're having dinner, they're going to pretend like everything's normal, and she's  _not_ going to have to tell her mother that she and Logan are getting divorced. Nope, that's a conversation for another day. Another time. 

"Tell you what...." Rory trailed off, acting as if she was thinking hard, before reaching out to take her son's hands and untangle them from where they were wrapped around himself. "We'll go to Luke's, and we'll get him to make you pancakes. He'll hate it -- you know how he feels about breakfast for dinner." She grins. "Plus, it'll make Grandma smile. Win, win."

Ricky paused for a good minute or so, his little tongue screwed between his lips as he considered it before nodding his head once. "Okay."

"Okay." Rory nodded once for emphasis, holding her hand out for a high five once they'd made their decision. Her grin widened when he high fived her back and, despite his claims that it was 'not cool', took his hand as they crossed the street. "Now c'mon, shoo. Go grab us a table -- the one at the back. And coffee. Lot's, and lot's, of coffee..."

Ricky took off like a shot and bolted into Luke's, nearly knocking over a startled Babette. Rory shot her a sheepish grin and offered up a half wave to her former neighbor, stopping to talk for a few moments before excusing herself to head inside. Ricky couldn't be left along with Lorelai for too long. Ever since she'd become a Grandmother, shed been slowly trying to condition her grandchild to be exactly like them. Not exactly a bad thing, she liked to think she turned out okay, but he was too young and she was too tired for any kind of shenanigans. At least for today.

She'd barely made it inside the diner before someone had crept up on her, sweeping her up in a hug. She knew without having to look that it was Kwan. Lane's son, the oldest of the twins, was ridiculously tall for his age. It made sense seeing as his father was relatively tall, and Lane's father before her, but it still caught her off guard sometimes. He was going to be twelve that summer and he already looked like a seventeen year old. They were going to have fun with that one. "Hey you." She said affectionately, hand coming up to ruffle his hair as she hugged him back. Though she didn't get home as often as she'd like to, she'd been an active present in their life even since they were born. Had even spent a few weeks one summer on the back of the tour bus, school books balanced on one knee and a baby on the other, so that her best friend could pursue her dreams and tour with her band. That was what friends did for each other, right? Lane had certainly been a life saver after Ricky had been born. Without her, Rory probably would have ended up burning the place to the ground. Between her and her mom, they'd kept her from losing her mind. "Where's your Mom? I forgot to call her.." Her head ducks sheepishly, shrugging slightly as Kwan grins. 

"Not working today. She knows you're here though -- she called, ten minutes ago." He weaseled out of her hold, making a show of smoothing his hair down. "Your table's over there." He jerked his head over towards the table before skirting past her and out back, having exhausted the whole two minutes of affection that he'd reserved for her. Boys were weird. Shaking her head, she crossed the room and slipped in across from her mother, stealing the oversized coffee cup right from under her nose as she brought it to her lips and took a deep breath. Mmm. Coffee.

"Hey." Lorelai glared over at her, brows narrowed, as she moved to steal the coffee back. "Give that back, oh child of mine. If you're not careful, we're going to enact Hammurabi's code and take those hands of yours as payment. Give Mommy back her coffee." 

Rory rolled her eyes and took a sip before handing the coffee cup back, smiling fondly up at Luke when he sat a cup down in front of her not a second later.

"You drink too much of this crap." He warned, though there was no bite to his words. He couldn't say much, not when his wife usually downed five cups before she even crawled out of bed in the morning. Rory waved her hand dismissively in his direction as she wrapped her hands around the cup, taking a deep breath and just savoring the feel of the heat on her hands. It didn't get too cold in Stars Hollow, at least not this time of year, but she could feel the seasons changing. Could smell it in the air. She couldn't help but appreciate the warmth against her fingers. She was so caught up in the gloriousness that was her coffee that she didn't notice the prying look on her mother's face, didn't see the question coming before it did. 

"You'll never guess who called me today." Rory looked up when her mother spoke, waiting for her to finish her sentence before realizing in horror, about thirty seconds before she did, one thing that she hadn't taken into account. One slight, minuscule,  _tiny_ detail, that she hadn't even considered. "Who is that, you ask? Well, I'll tell you! It was my mother. Imagine my surprise seeing as, oh, it's only Monday, and I saw her... what, two days ago? Naturally, I assume I've done something. You never know with Emily Gilmore, you never know when the other shoe's going to drop and -- boom, you stepped right in it." Lorelai gestures with her hands, making a 'whoosh' dramatically as she mimes something blowing up. "But no, this time... it's not me that she's calling to talk about. No, it's my daughter." Lorelai stops smiling at this, her face hard and her lips pressed tightly together as she continues. "... because how dare I not tell her that you and Logan are splitting up. That he's moved out, and you've got the house up for sale. Oh and here's the best part, how it was some kind of... some kind of slight, on her, that I left her out of the loop. She'll probably be calling you next, if she hasn't already. Heads up!"

Rory just stared at her mother, swallowing thickly, as she glanced down at her hands. They're not shaking, but she kind of wishes they were. It would be nice if her outside reflected how anxious she was feeling on the inside. C'mon, body. Co-operate. Ricky was out back with Luke, probably trying to convince him to dip everything in chocolate -- that was his new favorite thing, dipping -- and therefore, not around to hear her talk about the fact that she and his father were splitting up. It had been hard enough to explain to him in the first place, he didn't need to hear about it on a constant loop. She needed to protect him. As much as she could, anyway. 

Now all she needed was someone to protect  _her_ from the spanish inquisition that was Lorelai Gilmore. 


	2. Chapter 2

Silence stretched between the two Gilmore women.

"Well?" Lorelai asked, head cocked to the side as she surveyed her daughter. "Don't you have anything to say? Maybe a 'gee, mom, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this  _huge_ development in my life."

"I wouldn't say it's huge." Rory mumbled under her breath, eyes still trained on the coffee cup in front of her as she resisted the urge to sigh. If only the cup would let her drown in it, escaping a conversation she had no desire to partake in. "We've been having problems for awhile. You knew that."

"Having problems and breaking up are two different things." Lorelai pointed out, not incorrectly, as she scowled. "Fighting about what school to send your kid to and having him move out and selling the house are two  **very** different things."

"First of all," Rory interjected, before Lorelai could go much further. "I didn't kick him out. We both agreed that he should move out. It wasn't working, Mom. I would have thought that you -- of all people -- would get that." After all, Lorelai had done the same thing with Christopher. They'd ended things before it could get any messier than it already was, before anyone had the chance to get attached, and it had been for the better. How could her mother blame her for that?

"I'm not  _blaming_ you." Her mother replied. "I'd never blame you for any of this, kid. I'm just -- my  _mother_ knew before I did. My  _mother_. I could have tried to cover for you, y'know, if I'd known..." And it was then that the hurt flashed over her face and Rory couldn't help but feel guilty.  _Crap._ She'd been hoping to avoid that throughout all of this. 

"I'm sorry." She muttered, chewing on her lip absently as she spoke. "It all happened so fast. One minute we're fighting, the next he's talking about a break and -- I don't like breaks. They're so..." She shrugged. Last time she and Logan had been on a  _break_ he'd slept with an entire bridal party, so she doubted anyone would blame her for wanting some finality. Some clarity. No room for grey area. "You never know where you stand. So we talked and we decided... this is for the best. Separating." 

 

And while she believed that, really and truly did, it was a daunting thing as well. She hadn't been single in nearly a decade and the idea of going back out into the world -- with a kid nonetheless -- seemed like an impossible task. Hell, she wasn't even sure she'd remember how to do the whole 'dating' thing even if she wanted to... but she wasn't thinking about that. No, she had Ricky to think about, and he was going to be her top priority. The only thing that mattered. 

"It's for the best." She repeated. Maybe to make herself believe it as well. "It really is."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is super short, but hey -- I've got inspiration again. Expect more updates to come ~


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